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1. She Saw a Photo

She Saw a Photo

Gwen

“I don’t know where Toby is.”

Judy babbled on, but I barely heard a word. I pressed my phone harder against my ear, clutching so tight my fingers burned. Not that it made a difference. Every croak of the woman who managed my husband’s dental clinic was smothered by the roar of a truck blasting past me on the bridge.

Blonde hair whipping across my face, I wedged closer to the steel barrier as if another two steps would dull the noise. Judy probably couldn’t hear me over wave after wave of traffic, but I needed to try. I was running out of options.

Frantic words tumbled out. “Does anyone know how to get in touch with Toby?” I flicked a glance over my shoulder at the chaos swarming behind me. “It’s an emergency.”

That was an understatement. The Sydney Harbor skyline was on fire with flashing red and blue lights. Three cars had been written off, and the road was crammed with tow trucks, paramedics, and police directing the traffic and talking to witnesses.

What a shitshow.

And then there was me, the blob of athleisure, huddled off to the side.

There was no sign of the ass-kicking prosecutor I used to be.

I was peak suburban housewife, rocking sparkly flip-flops and yoga pants, bouncing an overstuffed blueberry on my hip.

Noah was safely bundled in his puffy coat.

Still, he was restless, kicking his chubby legs.

We’d been stranded too long.

I wished the old me were there. She’d never act so damn helpless.

She’d take control of the situation. Figure out a solution.

Make shit happen. But that woman was long gone.

She was off licking her wounds because her career—hell, almost everything that made her tick—was buried under a pile of dirty diapers and endless household responsibilities.

Judy started talking again. “Toby—” A horn blared. “Five—maybe—”

The steady whoosh of headlights turned fuzzy. Tears of frustration almost made their way down my cheeks, but I quickly swiped them away with the back of my hand. Talking to Judy was a waste of time. I needed help. No, screw that. I needed help an hour ago.

“Tell Toby to call me,” I said before my thumb hit the screen to end the call. I jammed my phone back into the waistband of my yoga pants and darted a look around the bridge.

Where was Toby?

I had no clue. Every one of my panicked calls had gone straight to voicemail. I’d fired off message after message letting him know I was stranded with Noah after some moron had cut me off, and… nothing .

Toby should’ve clocked off work at least an hour ago.

Even on the nights he was on call to handle emergencies, he always came home first. He should’ve been walking in the front door right about now, ready with smiles and kisses, growling something silly but so perfectly him, like, “We meet again, my fair Lady Gwendolyn.”

Wasn’t he worried we weren’t at home? Why wasn’t he answering his phone?

Worry twisted my stomach into a knot.

Was Toby okay?

Fate couldn’t be cruel enough for us both to be in an accident on the same night, could it? God, anything could’ve happened. Maybe Toby was hurt. What if he—

I slammed the brakes on those thoughts faster than I had in the accident. This wasn’t the time to panic. Noah needed me. We weren’t going anywhere if I collapsed into an emotional black hole.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and focused.

For one magical second, I was free. Everything vanished into the silent black.

The accident. The red and blue lights. The city.

What was left? My hair still lashed my face, and the frosty night air kissed my cheeks, but Noah was warm and safe, bouncing on my hip.

I’ve survived worse. Think, Gwen.

Time to call a taxi. Snapping back to the real world, I grabbed my phone. But headlights swerved off the road. Squinting, I shielded my hand over my eyes.

What fresh hell is hurtling for me now?

The familiar pink and white van rumbled to a stop, and the door flew open.

Marnie’s hand shot up in a frantic wave. “Gwen!” She hopped out and slammed the door so fast the ruffled bottom of her skirt got stuck. “The cavalry has arrived!” Flashing a sheepish smile, she yanked the fabric free.

Relief fluttered under my ribs. No one else would guess Marnie was so reliable.

Usually, her untamed curls floated in the clouds, her mind lost in dreams of shaping pretty cups and bowls from lumps of clay, too preoccupied for everyday problems. But I knew I could count on her.

In fourteen years, she’d never let me down. A true friend.

God knows you needed one when your family was… complicated .

Marnie darted around the broken shards of what used to be my headlight and the bit of fender the cops had kicked to the side.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” Her dark eyes bulged. “Gwen, your car! The front end’s completely totaled! What happened?”

I jerked my chin at the guy slouched against the tow truck. “Old mate over there didn’t bother checking his blind spot before changing lanes.”

“Useless.” She hugged her arm around me. “You okay?”

I nodded.

Physically, I was fine. The paramedics had looked us over and given the all-clear.

But mentally? Not even close. The accident ranked in the top ten worst moments of my life.

Nothing could destroy me like the day my brother had turned his back on me and walked out the door at seventeen.

But I’d rank the accident right up there with the time I’d gotten food poisoning on a three-day kayaking trip through Darwin without access to toilets. Yeah, that’s right. No toilets.

Marnie shot me a skeptical look but spared me from playing twenty questions. She was good like that.

She bent down and tickled Noah’s cheek. “What about you, little man?” she cooed. “You okay?”

Noah had none of his usual gummy smiles for Auntie Marnie. His thumb stayed stuffed in his mouth, and his big eyes blinked, heavy from being up way past his bedtime.

“Did you get hold of Toby?” I asked Marnie.

She shook her head. “I tried a hundred times on the drive across town. I called the clinic…the hospitals…his mother .” She let that comment sink in.

We both knew circumstances were dire if Sarah Sullivan had to be involved.

Toby’s mother wasn’t exactly on my Christmas card list. “You’ll be happy to know the beloved matriarch is still on her cruise in the South Pacific. ”

“Here’s hoping they lose her overboard,” I muttered. “What about Ian?” I’d given up trying to reach Toby’s best friend when two messages had gone unanswered.

Marnie gnawed her bottom lip.

“What?” The panic I’d slammed the brakes on earlier sped out of control again. “Mar, is Toby—”

“He’s okay.” She gave me a second to breathe before trying to explain. “I got hold of Ian…and…” She paused, her eyes looking somewhere over my shoulder, probably searching for the right words so I didn’t freak out. “Toby’s at a party.”

“A party?” My brain scrambled. This made no sense. I’d crowned myself the Sullivan household’s inaugural Domestic Social Planner. Other than the first birthday bash for Alfie Rawles next month, there were no party invitations on our calendar. “What party?”

Marnie kicked at a bit of broken headlight with the toe of her sandal. “A housewarming party.”

Nothing registered. My mind still came up blank. “Okay?”

“At Kayleigh’s place.”

I took a step back. No way . My head swam, dizzy, my thoughts spiraling from the shock.

Kayleigh wasn’t the name I wanted to hear.

A vapid twenty-one-year-old shouldn’t tie me up in knots, but Kayleigh was an itch that never went away because you weren’t quite sure where to scratch. She was just there. Everywhere. All the time.

She was the one who answered Toby’s phone when he was busy handling an emergency cavity or fixing the cracked tooth of some kid who’d fallen off the monkey bars.

He’d mentioned how she brought him a coffee each morning.

She’d laughed a little too long at his terrible jokes at his clinic’s Christmas party.

I wasn’t jealous. I had no reason to be…right?

Toby had insisted more than once there was nothing strange about hiring a dental assistant with a social media page dedicated to make-up tutorials and styling workout clothes.

Nothing was going on between them. Nothing at all.

Except I was stranded on the bridge with our baby and a crashed car while Toby chilled out with Kayleigh at a party I hadn’t been invited to.

I forced a smile. “I’m sure it’s nothing.” Denial. Pure denial.

But I knew it meant everything by the way Marnie avoided my eyes. She kicked at another bit of headlight. “There are…photos.”

“Photos?” I popped Noah higher on my hip, my hand fumbling to drag my phone from my waistband. “Tell me you’re joking.”

Marnie shook her head. She wouldn’t, not about something like that.

I zipped through posts and photos at record speed. It didn’t take long to find what Marnie was talking about. Kayleigh’s housewarming was practically trending, but…

What’s Marnie so worried about?

Artsy photos of a balloon arch. A curated charcuterie arrangement as big as my dining table.

Familiar faces from Toby’s work. Want to know who’s not fun to chat with at parties?

Dentists. Every photo confirmed Kayleigh’s party was swarming with a bunch of personalities about as exciting as my awful teenage attempts at meatloaf.

I swiped to the next photo.

Shock cracked my chest open so wide I was sure my heart would splatter on the road with all the other broken junk from the accident.

Marnie hugged me close. “You’ve got this.” The reassuring squeeze came next.

Speechless, I could only nod. I blinked at the screen. The photo stayed the same.

Kayleigh was front and center, her dark hair coiffed in a classy updo, and her body squeezed into an emerald dress that left very little to the imagination.

With one of her strappy silver heels kicked up, she kissed the cheek of the man grinning for the camera.

The dimple in his opposite cheek was just visible through his neatly trimmed beard, and his blue eyes crinkled at the corners.

His genuine smile. My gaze followed the line of his arm slung over her shoulders and then narrowed on the manicured fingernails she dug into his waist.

A crowd of boring dentists cheered on the kiss in the background.

Fun and games. What a hoot.

But I wasn’t laughing. I wasn’t sure I was even breathing anymore.

The man with the traitorous smile was my husband.